Contracts
Covenants
and
Constitutions

The voice of the people is heard and a new leader will take the office of chief executive officer of their Government or the old leaders will remain in their office with the renewed vote of the people.

These leaders will have the power to sign laws into place over the people, appoint new federal judges through out the nation, nominate new Supreme Court Justices, and send armies into battle. The voice of the people by the exercise of their will or vote appointed men who can now make law and all who are a part of that nation of voters will be under the rulers they have elected.

Most of the people will be dissatisfied with the winners. Less than half of the people who could vote will vote for the winner and many of those who do choose the winning candidate do so simply because they like the opponent even less. Some people will be elated and continue to believe that their candidate can do no wrong and they have elected God's choice until the voice of the people speaks again.

In the Bible we also see the phrase "the voice of the people" in the first book of Samuel, a prophet of Israel, a nation with no king or central ruler for hundreds of years. It is some four hundred years after their departure from Egypt when the people changed and chose to elect a leader who can exercise authority one over the other.

[1] 1 Samuel 8:7 "And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them."

This election of a central leader of authority and power was considered as if the people were turning their backs on God. They had men to lead them before, but they were not like the other nations by design. Their leader could not exercise authority over them as their leaders and government servants were actually public servants of servants, for in those days there was no central ruler in Israel.1

This was the way God wanted it and based on what Jesus said we have to assume that God still wants it that way today.2

But the people spoke. They wanted a leader who could supply them security and benefits, who would fight their battles for them.

So they voted to have a man as their leader and they gave that leader the power to rule over their neighbor and themselves. The new elected leader of Israel would lead them into battle like the other nations but he would be able to compel the people to contribute to his government with a compelled sacrifice. These sacrifices are called taxes today and every country has gone that way. When Saul compelled an offering Samuel called him foolish for doing so and to force a sacrifice of the people was considered a violation of the commandments.
[2]

Of course Samuel said if he did so it would be a foolish thing and his government would perish.3 Samuel did not say taxing people was a sin because he knew that those who were slothful in the ways of God as described by Moses should be under tribute.
[3]

[3] Proverbs 12:24 "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute."

[2] 1 Samuel 13:13 "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever."

This love included fulfilling the royal law mentioned above and in
James 2:8 by not coveting our neighbor's goods or anything that is thy neighbors, especially for our benefit and by caring for one another in charity. Of course it is an evil people that excuse taking from their neighbor for their personal benefit which is so common today in the world. It is not only a rejection of God and His righteousness to give men that kind of power but it is cruel to them for they will surely be corrupted by it.

Rulers will began to take and take and will build up their power and military and even take the sons and daughters of the people to serve their will.
[4]

[4] 1 Samuel 8:11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons... and [some] shall run before his chariots.... to make his instruments of war... And he will take your daughters

To give a leader the power to take from your neighbor is a violation of the laws of God in Old and New Testaments against coveting your neighbor's goods and the people will be judged by the law of liberty.
[5]

[5] James 2:12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Samuel gives a long clear warning from God as to what would happen if the "we" of the people were to choose a central ruler, someone who could exercise authority one over the other, someone who was a chief executive officer of their nation. It was a terrible curse Samuel spoke, but God was not choosing this curse. It was the desire of a people who had already rejected God that brought them into condemnation.4

Prior to this Israel had appointed titular leaders from the bottom up maintaining their right to decide fact and law in their own courts according to the laws and customs written in their own hearts. Those leaders were the mere representatives of the people, not lawmakers or rulers over the people, but the people turned their back on God in vanity and pride. These new elected leaders would now appoint men from the top down. There would soon be a multitude of officers appointed from the top down to eat out their substance, take their sons to wage war for him and their daughters to work in his service5.

The first fruits of their labor would eventually be his as the people continued to turn away from God and toward their new leaders who called themselves benefactors but who would exercise authority over them. They would eventually return to the bondage of Egypt where more than 20 percent of their labor was taken from them each year by the government,6 all their gold and silver was in the treasury of the government and their rights to their land were nothing more than tenants who paid an annual tribute.

Moses knew that the people might be this foolish and that giving such power to one man would be a great temptation and He warned them what elements they should put in their written constitution if they were to be so foolish as to elect a leader who had power.7

He should not have treaty making powers or accumulate the gold and silver of the people in his treasury or establish a standing army... Israel was a republic in the sense of Webster's definition where the leaders were titular but this new leader would have an exercising authority like the other nations who rule over the people. Israel was turning the world upside down with their vote.

What is a vote?

According to Webster's 1913 Dictionary the word vote can be defined as, " An ardent wish or desire; a vow; a prayer. "

A vote can be considered a vow or a prayer. It is an expression of your desire and wish and it is a form of application for that wish to become law. It is also participation in an attempt to exercise authority over all other voters, both registered and those merely qualified to vote.

"Often the terms 'citizen' and voter are confused. A voter is a person who is allowed by law to take part in the government."8

That vote as a "vow" can be defined as, "Specifically, a promise of fidelity..." for what ever candidate wins. Is voting an act of faith? Fidelity is defined as, "Faithfulness; adherence to right; careful and exact observance of duty, or discharge of obligations."

Or is further defined as, "A solemn promise made to God... an act by which one consecrates or devotes himself, absolutely or conditionally, wholly or in part, for a longer or shorter time, to some act, service, or condition; a devotion of one's possessions; as, a baptismal vow; a vow of poverty." Webster's 1913

If Jesus told us to not to be like the governments of the other nations who call their leaders benefactors but also exercise authority one over the other then how can we say Jesus is our Lord or sing about Him being our King, or imagine that we believe in Him? [see Luke 22:25...]

To vote is an attempt to exercise authority over your neighbor through the agency of the elected rulers.

I must ask What is your vote, your vow, your prayer?

Who are you going to pray to have rule over you this year? Men or God? Men like Gideon who said, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you”? Or Jesus Christ who would not rule over the people but came to set them free? Do we have an alternative? Is there another way to go? Is that the kingdom of God Jesus told us to preach which functions under the perfect law of liberty?

Actually, there is an alternative to democracy. It is called the Kingdom of God which is at hand and that Jesus told us to preach. The kingdom of God begins within you when you love the justice, mercy and righteousness that is God and you are as concerned about your neighbor's rights as you are about your own. It is a very real system whereby Abraham freed many souls from Haran, Moses freed a nation from Egypt, and Jesus turned the world up side down redeeming a peculiar people.

He told His appointed ministers to go out and preach to all nations that the kingdom of God was at hand, within your reach. We are to seek it and His righteousnes. That is what we hope to share with you at His Holy Church.

What is that kingdom, how did it operate and how does it set men free?

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

People who want to be free must set their neighbor free from their own lust and avarice.

They must learn to live by faith and hope through charity in a voluntary societ based on love for one another.

Most people will not choose that way of living by faith under the perfect law of liberty spoken of in the gospel of the kingdom.

1 Judges 17:6 "In those days [there was] no king in Israel, [but] every man did [that which was] right in his own eyes." [Judges 21:25]

2 Luke 22:25 "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But it shall not be so among you:" [Mt 20:25 Mk 10:42]

3 1 Samuel 13:13 "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue:"

4 1 Samuel 8:7 "And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city."

5 "WASHINGTON -- The chief of the Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft and requiring that young Americans regularly inform the government about whether they have training in niche specialties needed in the armed services." Eric Rosenberg, Seattle Post-Intelengencer Washington Bureau

7 Deuteronomy 17:15 "Thou shalt in any wise set [him] king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: [one] from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which [is] not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:"

9 Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Romans 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

10 Matthew 20:25,.
Mark 10:42 Luke 22:25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
But it shall not be so among you:...

11 2 Peter 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

12 Proverbs 23 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

13 Psalms 69:22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
Romans 11:9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:

142 Peter 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.